Finally something to smile about for Hoosier fans in a season of wasted opportunities

Been a little under the weather this weekend so my plan to drop a cache of posts here to get things stirring has taken a back seat to my health.
I did want to post this one, though, before IU's upcoming game in a few minutes against a reeling Michigan State team at East Lansing that I'll be watching on The BigTenNetwork, DirecTV Channel 610.


IU 52, U of I 49 - First win against ranked team while Tom Crean's been head basketball coach at IU.
Video highlights at:
http://www.bigtennetwork.com/generic/sports/video?autostart=true&bcpid=60234638001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEBQhU8~,kLn_EtefUBn-jd4QuQdKKKEE0M4y3HUj&bctid=766801782001

It's not by mistake that I've chosen not to write much about this disappointing college basketball season, the third in the Tom Crean regime in Bloomington. (Or even said anything about Kevin Wilson being hired as the new football coach, a move I welcomed.)

There's a lot of misgivings and discomfort among some Hoosier fans I know and communicate with on a regular basis, not only over players that have failed to develop as expected (or in some cases, even regressed) but about wasted opportunities on nationally-televised games, cementing the idea among key high school players -and some fair-weather fans- that IU can't show more toughness and grit in close games, and emerge victorious.

While this victory over the Fighting Illini was certainly nice, especially at a packed Assembly Hall where devout fans have been eyewitness to more losing than at any time since I've been a Hoosier -and more since these students have been alive- I still find that a lot of very frustrated IU fans living far from the Midwest, are having a hard time accepting "moral victories."

You can count me among them, and you can see that in the agitated and exasperated emails from Hoosier faithful that are sent to the Hoosiers homepage of the Indy Star
http://www.indystar.com/section/SPORTS0601?odyssey=nav|s|hoosiers&nav=2

That's especially the case with knowledgeable fans whose base of understanding for Hoosier basketball, both history and personality context, extends decades, many of whom frequently respond to Indy Star reporter Terry Hutchens' Hoosiers Insider blog at
http://blogs.indystar.com/hoosiersinsider/

Hoosiers Insider remains a great resource for Hoosier fans living far from the rolling hills of Bloomington, and remains one of the few places that I can consistently go and find out something, from either Terry or a reader, that I didn't already know or had considered about the team and its history.

People with an institutional memory about the team that recall things that happened before I got to Bloomington in the fall of 1979 the way I STILL remember things about the 1972 Dolphins Perfect Season -whether scores of the games, the team roster, mini-controversies, et al- which was my first year as a Dolphins season ticket holder.

When IU plays Kentucky in mid-December, that's almost always been a nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game that got lots of eyeballs coast-to-coast. Now, it's almost forgotten and on ESPN2 or wherever it was, and not even brought up until late into ESPN's SportsCenter or into their radio programming -an after-thought.

The annual Michigan at IU ballgame which had so many memorable and clutch finishes from 1980-2000 while a CBS nationally-televised staple, has also become a victim of the recent mediocrity.

When I watched it recently on TheBigTenNetwork, it was hard not to think of all those games with Coach Knight getting the better of whomever was patrolling the sidelines for the Wolverines, and the confidence IU fans had with Damon Bailey or Steve Alford bringing the ball up-court with less than thirty seconds to play against those excellent Wolverine teams.

You knew that the fundamentals would be there and that guys would come thru in the clutch, and if they lost, it would NOT be for lack of a proper understanding of what they needed to do and where they needed to be on the court for that last shot.

Now, I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen from play to play, and whether a player will repeat the same mistake twice before getting pulled from the game.

Rebuilding is definitely a bitch.

The IU homepage at The BigTenNetwork website, full of IU-related stories & videos: http://www.bigtennetwork.com/subindex/schools/indiana

Exciting match expected today when Terps play Tar Heels for NCAA D1 Field Hockey title

At Noon on Sunday I'm watching the NCAA
D1 Field Hockey championship match on
CBSC -CBS College Sports, DirecTV 613-
between undefeated, # 1 and defending champion
Maryland and #3 19-2 North Carolina in what
looks to be a really exciting match from Winston-Salem.

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-fieldh/ncaa-w-fieldh-body.html

http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/2009/ncaa_bracket_DI_field_hockey.html

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-fieldh/champpage/w-fieldh-div1-index.html

http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/spec-rel/09-wake-fieldh-final-four.html

In my opinion, the handful of matches televised
this past season on The BigTen Network were
much better than in the past, though Michigan
State naturally got the lion's share of the games,
befitting their national reputation and consistent
Top 15 ranking.

Last year's Big Ten tourney in Bloomington
was played under some cold, wet and windy
conditions on the field just off of 17th Street
between Fee Lane and N. Jordan.
The weather sometimes seemed to affect play,
which is always a possibility in early November
in Bloomington.

This year's tourney up in East Lansing,
thankfully, seemed blessed with much nicer
weather that allowed all the teams to flash
their skills.

I was very pleased to see IU make it to
the finals against the Spartans on Nov. 8th,
and to be able to watch the match from
beginning to end.

Though they ultimately lost 3-2 to an
excellent Spartan squad, whom I knew
fairly well from watching their earlier matches
on TV over the past few months,
the closeness of the match and the
gritty spirit and character the Hoosiers
displayed in hanging-tough with a top
national team on the road, clearly
demonstrated to all who are paying
close attention to the sport, that IU's
growing positive national reputation
is well-deserved.

Kudos to Hoosier Head Coach
Amy Robertson and her assistants
for getting the most out of the team
and making it to the NCAA Sweet 16
this year, before losing to a tough
Wake Forest squad, which is always
well-coached and full of very talented
international players.
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/ind-w-fieldh-body.html


Efforts like those will only increase the
positive word-of-mouth about the
Hoosier's FH program's upward direction
and increase the flow of high-quality
recruits from field hockey hot-spots
on the East Coast and in the Midwest
to Bloomington.

Not that it wouldn't be great to get
some silly-talented girls from
The Netherlands or Great Britain,
though!
http://www.knhb.nl/


Thru fortuitous timing, that same day,
I was also able to watch the ACC
tourney final and watch the Terps
stage an amazing comeback in
overtime against a scrappy and
ultimately somewhat heart-broken
#2 UVA squad at Charlottesville,
one of my favorite places.
http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17800&SPID=10593&SPSID=92022

The talented Cavaliers regrouped
and later eliminated Michigan State
from the NCAA tourney 3-2 and
made it to the Final Four where they
lost 3-2 on Friday to UNC .
http://www.ncaa.com/splash/2009fhockeysplash.htmldefault.aspx?id=188

The sheer talent and ability of the
Terps in that game demonstrated
once again that no matter what the
score is, no matter how well you're
playing, you can NEVER EVER
take your foot off the accelerator
when you play Maryland.

They will not quit, no matter how
close to the end of the match it gets.
They are relentless!

The Terps tradition of winning NCAA
titles and playing tough matches even
when they are not at their best, is a
valuable lesson that ought to be more
widely-known and appreciated than it
currently is.
http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-fieldh/archive/090809aab.html
http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-fieldh/md-w-fieldh-body-main.html
http://www.umterps.com/view.gal?id=58544

I like them to win 4-2 over a talented
Tar Heels squad.
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-fieldh/unc-w-fieldh-body.html

Many Fleeing Michigan En Masse Have Maps of Florida -HB Wants Dibs on the Smart & Skilled Ones!

Late last month, March 24th to be exact, I had a post here

about what seemed clear to me after reading what veteran

ace reporter Fred Dicker had written in the NY Post about

the disastrous economic plans of New York governor

David Patterson.

Titled Expect more New Yorkers in Broward, as NY Post

reveals: GOV PLOTS SECRET TAX HIKE ON RICH

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/expect-more-new-yorkers-in-broward-as.html

I noted in passing how the Patterson plans seemed almost

designed to drive every productive person out of New York

State due to his proposed tax increases of every conceivable

size and shape, surely the wrong kind of diversity.

His plans also seem designed to drive him from office, to boot,

if people actually turn out to vote.

In a similar negative economic story, over the past two days,

the Detroit News has run some terrific stories about the mass

flight out of Michigan of the educated and skilled, with many

folks, not surprisingly, moving to Florida, perhaps hoping

that their Midwestern education and can-do abilities will count

for something in an area where that attitude is always in short

supply.

Per those two stories, Hallandale Beach hereby calls dibs

on the smart and skilled Michigan emigres coming to South

Florida, since we clearly need them more desperately than

anyone else.

Sadly, for reasons that I mention constantly here, the City of

Hallandale Beach and the sclerotic business establishment

here that's tied at the hip to HB City Hall, has the exact

opposite of a can-do spirit.

If anything, the lackadaisical spirit permeating this area

actually recalls nothing so much as the autocratic

heavy-handed Soviet-style of government planning,

with an un-healthy helping of toxic crony capitalism

tossed in just for spite.

Just because they can get away with it.

(I'll have a post over the weekend here about a vote cast

in spite at Wednesday's HB City Commission that you

haven't read or heard about elsewhere.

One that robs residents of something they are entitled to:

access to elected officials on City hall property.

And who's behind it and who let it happen?

Shocker!

Joy Cooper, Mike Good and David Jove.)

What else explains how people with no tangible ties to

this city, and who've brought in some cronies with strong

ties to City Hall in exchange for stock in order to get the

deal done, can get a loan from CRA funds of over $100k,

without actually owning property in the city as the city's

own rules insist, and don't even have their credit checked

by HB City Hall.

Yes, we definitely need many more people with Midwestern

sensibilities and can-do spirit around here to right the sinking

Ship of Fools under the the disastrous reign of Mayor Joy

Cooper and the $422k Man himself, City Manager Mike

Good.

They aren't The Fast and the Furious, rather they are

the autocratic, apathetic and incompetent tag-team that

leads the Rubber Stamp crew of Julian, Ross and

Sanders that make Hallandale Beach's citizen taxpayers

Irate and Furious.

Detroit News

April 2, 2009

Leaving Michigan Behind: Eight-year population exodus staggers state

Outflow of skilled, educated workers crimps Michigan's recovery

Ron French and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News

Joe LaCross drives American cars. Always has. Born and raised in the blue-collar suburbs of Detroit, this son of a welder wouldn't dream of rolling past his autoworker neighbors in a Toyota. But not long ago the 38-year-old pulled into the driveway of his Sterling Heights home in a vehicle wreaking even more havoc in his home state.

A moving van.

"I grew up here," said LaCross, as he packed to move to Florida in search of a job. "My family is here. My wife's family is here. I love everything about Michigan.

Rest of story at:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090402/METRO/904020403/Leaving+Michigan+Behind++Eight-year+population+exodus+staggers+state

---------------------------------

Detroit News

April 3, 2009

Leaving Michigan Behind: Second of a two-day series

Half of university grads flee Michigan

State tries to bolster grad rates, but growing number move away

Ron French / The Detroit News

Chicago -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm must see Emily Zuker in her nightmares.

Young, bright and college-educated, the Michigan Stae University grad got her degree in 2006 and immediately moved to Chicago -- now home to the largest concentration of recent MSU grads in the nation.

"It's just like being back at Michigan State," said Zuker, 25.

Except that it's not in the state of Michigan.

At a time when Granholm is pushing to double the number of college grads, the number of grads leaving the state has doubled instead.

Half of Michigan's college grads now leave the state within a year of graduation, taking with them their diplomas and the talent needed to help rebuild Michigan's economy.

Rest of story at:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090403/METRO/904030378/1409/METRO/Half+of+university+grads+flee+Michigan